Thank you MaggieMay17 for beta'ing, Ncsupnatfan and VegasGranny for pre-reading, and you all for coming back for the sequel. Though after the way Story One ended, I guess you didn't really have a choice ;-)

Chapter One

Sam woke with a start, his eyes flying open and breath catching in his throat and making him cough.

He rolled onto his side, and his chest heaved for a moment until he was drawing full breaths. He couldn't hear anything at all; his ears were filled with a hum that wasn't unlike angel radio.

He looked around and saw that he was in the library, and he was surrounded. Nick was slumped against the wall, his eyes wide. Mary was standing across from him, her hands over her desperate face. Jack and Castiel stood behind Mary, Castiel's hands bracing her back, and Rowena was lying still against the wall where she'd hit.

None of them were looking at Sam with fear or anger. They weren't looking at him at all; their eyes went right through him. There was confusion on some faces, devastation on others.

And Dean was missing.

His ears cleared, and the sounds of the room reached him. Dean was making agonized sounds, and Mary was screaming.

Terrified of what he was going to see, Sam turned slowly.

The sight in front of him was horror and confusion. He couldn't understand what he was seeing.

He could see where he had fallen dead, the ashy wings spread out on the floor behind, but Sam's body wasn't lying there now. It was clutched against Dean's chest, and he was rocking it, crying, "Sammy, no! Please, Sammy, I'm sorry."

A strange thrill of electricity swept through Sam. Dean was calling him Sammy. Did he remember? Had this been Chuck's loophole? Would Sam be remembered just in time to die? It was perfectly cruel. Sam wasn't the only one being punished now; Dean was suffering, too.

If he had Chuck in front of him now and that gun in his hand, he would aim for the head.

Nick pushed away from the wall and got to his feet, stumbling slightly. Castiel watched for a moment and then gestured for Jack to replace him supporting Mary. Jack put his arm around her, and Castiel went to Nick, steadying him with a hand on the shoulder, and then reached for his temple.

Nick pushed his hand away.

"Nick…" Castiel said sorrowfully. "Please, let me heal you."

"No," Nick moaned. "I deserve this."

Nick shoved past Castiel and staggered to Dean then dropped down beside him. He reached out a hand and touched Sam's head where it was cradled against Dean's chest. "Sammy," he whispered.

"I killed him," Dean moaned. "I killed my own little brother…"

Mary walked away from Jack and moved to join Nick. She knelt down in the remains of Sam's wings and touched Dean's cheek.

He stopped rocking Sam and fixed his eyes on Mary's. "I'm sorry, Mom," he said. "God, I'm sorry. I didn't know. I thought…" A sob bubbled up his throat, and he buried his face in Sam's hair.

"We've got to do something," Nick said desperately.

The incongruity of the scene reached Sam at last. Dean remembered, he said so, and the way he was holding Sam made it clear that he felt the connection again, but Nick was upset, too. He shouldn't be upset. If he remembered, he should be running. Dean would kill him.

Even without knowing what Nick had tried to do to Sam, how the fight had come about, Dean would kill Lucifer in a heartbeat. There were weapons there, two archangel blades, but nobody was reaching for them. Somehow, Nick was still Dean's brother.

So, what did that make Sam?

Realization dawned on Sam, finally. They remembered something, but it wasn't the full truth. This wasn't the end of Chuck's plan. This was just the next step. The fact that Sam was still there, an unseen observer to it all instead of in The Empty, reinforced the fact.

"What can we do?" Mary asked, wiping her wet face with her sleeve and wrapping her tremoring arms around her middle.

"Rowena!" Nick said, turning hopefully to the witch that was stirring on the floor. "Rowena, wake up!"

"I don't think…" Castiel shook his head and crossed the room to her. He pressed his fingers to her forehead and then hauled her to her feet. "You have to help," he urged.

Rowena looked around, her brows furrowed and eyes blank. "I don't understand. He's dead? Why are you…" She looked at Jack, who was the only other person who wasn't obviously emotionally affected by the scene. "What's going on?"

Jack bit his lip. "I don't know. Sam is dead, but somehow he's also their brother, I think."

"How did that happen?"

"It doesn't matter," Dean snapped. "Rowena, you have to bring him back."

Rowena looked alarmed. "I can't bring an archangel back. Not even the Book of the Damned would tell me how to do that. It would take the power of—"

Nick cut her off. "Cas, can you do it?"

Castiel held up his hands helplessly. "Even if he was human, I don't think I could do it."

"A deal," Nick suggested.

Sam's heart contracted painfully with fear. If there was going to be a deal made, it would be Dean who paid the price. Dean was the one that always paid the price for Sam.

"No!" he said fiercely, reaching for Dean automatically. "You can't!" His hand moved through Dean like he was made of mist, and he cursed. He wasn't truly there and could do nothing to stop this.

"He was an archangel when he died," Castiel said. "There's nothing I nor any demon can do. This would need more power than any being on earth is capable of."

Dean squeezed his eyes closed, and fresh tears slipped from under his lids.

"Billie," Nick whispered. "Or Chuck. They can do it."

"Yes!" Mary gasped. "How do we get them here?"

In answer, Dean moved Sam's body into Nick's arms, where it was held as if something precious—the sight made Sam feel sick. Dean threw back his head and shouted, "Chuck! We need you!"

They all looked around, Jack and Rowena looking wary but confused, but there was no new presence in the room.

Dean cursed, and Mary laid her hand on his shoulder. "Try Billie. She might come for you." She gently combed her fingers through Sam's hair, smoothing the tangles. "Someone has to come."

"Billie!" It was Nick that called this time, and his voice was a demanding bellow. "Come on!"

"Well, look at this," a smooth voice said, a hint of amusement in it.

Sam saw Billie walking towards him, directly through the tableau of the group gathered on the floor; Sam's body clutched against Nick, and Mary kneeling beside him and Dean. She moved through them like they were made of smoke, as if she was iron dispersing a ghost. When she was past them, they reformed as if nothing had touched them at all.

"What's going on, Billie?" Sam asked.

She raised an eyebrow. "I would have thought that was obvious. Dean killed you."

Sam's eyes moved past her to look at his own body again, feeling the unease that was the sight of himself being held by the man whose face haunted his nightmares.

She sighed. "You're distracted, and that's not helpful."

Billie snapped her fingers. Sam felt a jolt of cold air, and then he was standing in a vast room surrounded by bookshelves filled with black books.

"This is your reading room," Sam said, remembering the description Dean had eventually given after much probing, following Dean's temporary death in the Doctor Meadows case a couple of years ago.

"It is."

She walked to a desk where there was a single book on the blotter. She picked it up and showed Sam the spine where he saw his own name printed. "You had shelves of these before you shot God," she said. "A multitude of possible deaths, but after God's plan was put in place, they all disappeared and were replaced by this outcome." She patted the cover. "One death. One man's hands that dealt the killing blow."

"So why am I still here? Shouldn't I be in The Empty? I'm technically an archangel now. Or I was when I died…"

"You should be. I didn't control this particular end. It was taken out of my hands. I told you there was a loophole."

"Yeah, but I thought I was supposed to get my life back."

"You were," she agreed. "At least that was what I assumed. I thought that having Dean kill you would be enough, that God would reset things. I was wrong. He was obviously even more angry than I realized. I think he's enjoying the story, too. I admit it was interesting for me to watch it unfold. I think this new development is what's called a sequel."

Sam's mind sorted through what she was saying at half speed. Though he was here with her now, getting answers, his heart was still in the library with his family gathered around his dead body.

"What happens next?" he asked. "What's the next part of the story?"

"I don't know. I'm not in control of it. That would be you."

"So, I'm supposed to just hang around as a ghost forever?" he asked. "That's what he wants to see?"

It made sense in a way. It had been hard enough to be alive but without his family, trapped in the persona of Lucifer and then his vessel to their minds. Being an observer to their grief would be even worse. And that was precisely the kind of thing Chuck would enjoy.

"It's possible," she said. "No new book has been created for you; there's no other end, so you are either destined to end here and now or never end." She pressed her lips into a thin line. "It's funny that a Winchester that died so many times and lived is now the one that can't die at all. Everything should die eventually."

"What do I do?" Sam asked.

"I have no answers for you, Sam. God is the one you need to speak to, and the fact he hasn't shown himself yet means he's still enjoying what he's seeing and doesn't want to interfere."

"Then why did you bring me here?"

"Call it an act of kindness. I will have to go back to them and answer their questions, but I wanted you to have a moment away from what was happening. You did kill Michael, so I owed you a favor. And I was the one that set you up with a rogue reaper, unknowingly, that didn't give you all the tools you needed. The fact you won at all was an impressive feat."

Sam sorted through his thoughts for a moment and then asked, "Do you know what's going on with Nick? What does he think happened? He was upset."

"I think upset is an understatement. As for what he remembers, I'm not sure. The story is still being told, and I don't have a copy. I have to discover it along with you."

"Okay. Take me back."

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you giving me orders?"

"No! I meant, please, please can you take me back? I need to see whatever's happening. Dean might do something stupid to make this right, and I need to stop him."

"How are you going to do that?"

There was a soft laugh from behind the closest bookshelf, and Chuck revealed himself. His smile was smug, and there was a light in his eyes, joy at Sam's pain, that made Sam want to attack. Even knowing what happened the last time he tried to hurt Chuck, Sam would perhaps have done it again if he'd had a weapon.

"Yeah, Sam," he said. "How are you going to do that?"

Sam's shoulders sagged as he recognized his absolute defeat in the situation. He had no control, no way to help Dean or stop him from making a bad decision. He wasn't even a real ghost that could find a way to communicate with him.

"Please, stop this," he said, his voice pleading. "I've learned my lesson."

Chuck smirked. "This was never about imparting a lesson, Sam. This was about the story. It came out even better than I could have imagined. Michael was the wildcard I needed but didn't see coming. I had no idea he would enjoy it so much or that he would find so many ways to hurt you. He's dead now, of course, but he came from a world that was just another failed experiment, so I don't mind."

"Then what happens next?" Sam asked. "What am I supposed to do? Do I just watch them forever, living their lives, seeing Dean's pain?"

"What kind of story would that be?" he asked, seeming genuinely confused by the question. "It has no entertainment value at all. No, Sam, you're not staying a helpless ghost. You can dive right back into that story and suffer the consequences."

"You're sending me back?" Sam asked hopefully.

If they remembered him now, he could have some kind of life with them. He would have Nick, too, but that was a fair price to pay for having his real family in his life.

"I am," Chuck said. "But you're going to need a little lesson in Winchester history. You can't play your part if you don't know your lines." He looked at Billie and said, "I'm sure this is boring for you, so I'll take over. You can stand down."

Billie scowled. "I'm not yours to command."

Chuck tapped his chin. "I'm aware, you're one of only two that I can't command, but you will play your part for your own reasons when it's time. I think you have some affection for the Winchesters deep down." When Billie raised an eyebrow, he went on, "Very deep down perhaps. You involved yourself with Sam, after all. I don't think you'll be able to ignore Dean's calls much longer if I don't stop them coming."

"True," Billie said. "He's distracted now, though."

"Not for long," Chuck asked. "It won't take long for them to decide on a hunter's funeral. We should move things along before I am forced to create a whole new vessel for Sam. That's time-consuming, and this intermission has already taken too long. I want the second act."

Sam felt a swoop in his stomach, and he found himself in the library again. His eyes immediately searched for Dean, but he was gone.

More time had passed for them than for him with Billie as now Castiel, Jack, Mary, and Rowena were sitting around a table with glasses of whiskey. Mary's was in front of her as she sat with her hands pressed hard onto the tabletop as if to stop them shaking. Jack and Rowena were sipping theirs, and Castiel was turning his in his hand, his eyes fixed on the swirling amber liquid.

"I don't understand," Jack said. "How can they have a brother that we never knew? Where has he been? Who was he?"

"He was my son," Mary said weakly. "He was my little boy."

Jack reached out a tentative hand and placed it on hers where it lay on the table. "What happened to him?"

Mary winced. "You should tell them, Castiel. I was only there for his very beginning, and Dean and Nick didn't tell me much of what happened after. I only know about… Lucifer."

Castiel fixed his eyes on her for a moment, sad and sympathetic, and then looked at Jack, addressing his words to him. "Sam was two years younger than Dean; he was Mary and John's second son."

Mary squeezed her eyes closed, and a tear trickled down her cheek and onto the front of her shirt.

Castiel drew a breath and said, "He grew up with Dean and Nick, joining the hunting life at an early age. I only know the facts as Heaven knew them, apart from the year before the apocalypse when I got to know Sam. Dean and Nick didn't speak of him after he was gone, not to me, at least. I think they spoke about him in private, but that wound remained raw for a long time after they lost him." He smiled sadly. "Sam was a good hunter, though that's perhaps an understatement. He was excellent. Heaven was aware of him for more than his role in the true vessels' lives. His skills and successes reached us, too."

Sam moved closer to the table, away from Billie, wanting to be closer to his mother as she absorbed this story.

He was hearing it for the first time, too, but he wasn't really surprised by it. He was more impressed by Chuck's plan and the work he'd put into it. Having him play an unknown man that became Lucifer's vessel would have been relatively simple, but doing this, giving them this history and these memories, would have taken a lot of thought and care.

Or perhaps not.

Chuck created universes to enjoy their entertainment value, discarding them as soon as they began to bore him. There was probably a world in which there was a third Winchester son that he was plucking the story from.

"Dean was dedicated to the hunt and his father from an early age," Castiel said. "But his focus was never wholly the hunt because he was also Nick and Sam's primary caretaker."

Mary winced, and he shot her an apologetic look.

"Of them all, Sam had the greatest freedom," Castiel went on. "He wasn't responsible for his younger brother as Dean was, and he was more of a… I suppose the word is natural hunter. He enjoyed it. Even before he was old enough to hunt, he would immerse himself in lore and research to help his father. When he was older and able to take cases with John, he showed his strength."

"He was always so strong-willed," Mary murmured. "Dean was such an easygoing child that Sam was a shock to the system when he came along. He was so different. He and John were…" She wiped at her face. "Dean was mine; he always came to me. But Sam went to John."

Sam almost smiled at that particular detail. He and John were perhaps similar, but they'd been the ones that butted heads because of it. Dean was John Winchester's true son.

"That continued in adult life," Castiel said. "When Dean wanted to be independent, to hunt alone and control the time he was away from Nick, Sam stayed with their father. Sam never truly got over John's death. They were both the reason Nick left Stanford. Sam and John disappeared, and Dean was worried enough to ask Nick to help. Nick abandoned his studies and joined him in the search. When the reason for their absence came out, when they heard how close John and Sam were to finding the cause of your death, Mary, Nick chose to stay for the fight instead of returning to his civilian life."

"This is fascinating, of course, but how did he end up as Lucifer's vessel?" Rowena asked.

Sam didn't think she was cruelly moving the subject along. He could see the strain the story was having on Mary, and he thought Rowena was trying to help her in her own way.

He wanted to know the full story, but he didn't need to. He'd heard almost everything he needed to hear. Nick had taken his place for all those years with Dean, so Sam's would be a created history that didn't matter. If he just knew how he'd become Lucifer's vessel, he could work out what he was going to do next if and when Chuck brought him back.

"We don't know for sure why he said yes," Castiel admitted. "None of us were there. In the days immediately following Lucifer's release from the Cage, Sam was distant. We believed that he was angry with Nick for his part in it. They'd always had a turbulent relationship. Sam and Dean were very close, but Nick and Sam never forged the same kind of connection."

"Nick loved him," Mary said vehemently. "I know he did. I saw it when Sam… when he was…" She broke off with a sob.

"I'm sure he did," Castiel said gently and then went on, addressing Jack and Rowena. "Sam disappeared from the motel he and Dean were staying in; Nick had parted from them for a time as they were all struggling with what happened, and Nick thought it would be safer for others if he wasn't part of the hunt. I became aware that Lucifer had a vessel, and when I investigated… It was Sam."

"But why?" Mary asked in a moan. "Why would he say yes? What did Lucifer do to him?"

"He was trying to save his brother."

Everyone turned at the sound of the voice, and Rowena and Castiel's eyes widened when they took in Chuck standing behind them.

Mary jumped to her feet, and her eyes roved for a weapon. Castiel placed a hand on her arm and said, "It's okay, Mary. He's not going to hurt us."

Chuck walked around to stand at the end of the table, his eyes fixing on Sam for a moment where he stood opposite, a small smile playing around the corner of his lips.

Mary seemed unsure for a moment, and then her need for answers won out. "What do you mean he was trying to save his brother? Who are you?"

"I'm Chuck," he said serenely and then went on with his created history of Sam. "Lucifer said he would spare Nick if Sam gave consent. He told Sam that Nick was his true vessel. Sam trusted Dean to refuse Michael, he had faith in his strength, but Nick had just freed Lucifer and was still struggling with…" He shook his head, sparing them the mention of demon blood. "Sam thought Nick would give in to Lucifer, and he didn't want him to suffer that terrible fate. Sam thought he would be strong enough to overpower Lucifer, to control him, so he gave consent. He wanted to save his brother."

Sam sucked in a breath as Chuck weaved his story. It was casting him in a heroic light, which Sam knew wasn't his intent. This was about him setting the scene in a believable way. It was a Winchester trait to sacrifice for family, and Chuck apparently had given that same trait to him in his new life as the surplus brother.

"How do you know this? Who are you?" Mary asked.

"This is my Father," Castiel said. "He's God."

Chuck looked suitably compassionate as he looked at Mary and said, "You can call me Chuck."

Mary lurched around the table towards him, and her eyes were full of need as she asked, "Can you help us? Can you bring Sam back?"

"I can," Chuck said carefully. "But it may not be what you want." He gave Sam a flicker of a wink and said, "It's not my decision to make." He gestured to her and said, "Come with me, Mary. Your sons need you."

Mary hurried forwards, her eyes still sad but now with a gleam of hope as she followed Chuck down the hall.

Sam followed close on her heels, leaving the others in stunned silence watching Mary and Chuck.

Sam knew he was helpless to do more for his mother, but he needed to be close.

He expected his impending resurrection was going to be harder than dying had been. That had been relatively easy, though painful. But this…

Chuck was going to bring him back, but it wouldn't be to his real life. It would be just another story.

So… What do you think? I know Nick's thoughts and feelings aren't very clear in this one, but we'll hear from him next, so we'll see exactly what he remembered.

Until next time…

Clowns or Midgets xxx